The best currency forecasters say the dollarâs 12 percent slide over the past year is coming to an end as Europeâs deepening debt crisis discourages bets against the worldâs reserve currency.

Led by Schneider Foreign Exchange Ltd., the five most- accurate firms during the six quarters through June 30 as measured by Bloomberg see the dollar trading at $1.42 per euro on average by year-end, compared with $1.43 on July 8. Against the yen, they predict the greenback will rise to 83 from 80.64.

While Moodyâs Investors Service without reason added to Europeâs woes last week by lowering Portugalâs credit ranking to junk, the dollar is regaining its status as a haven after the worst performance over the past year among 10 developed-market currencies based on Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The dollar is up 5.9 percent from a 17-month low on May 4 against the euro.

âThereâs not a lot of room left for it to weaken beyond $1.50 to the euro, and we still see it recovering to about $1.40 by year-end,â said Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at Schneider in London, who had an average margin of error of 5.05 percent across all currency pairs. âThe risk of a disorderly default is, for now, much higher in Europe than in the U.S.â

Strangely enough, the US with $14 trillion in debt is a safe currency heaven after US based credit rating agencies slammed the credit ratings of European nations.